Meridian: Dax falls in love with a man on a planet which regularly shifts from one dimension to another.

Odo is puzzled by Kira's coffee being too hot. He doesn't have taste buds, so eating's not that pleasant. Then Jeff Combs appears as yet another alien to chat with the pair, and Kira claims that Odo's her lover to put him off. Foreshadowing a go go.

Sisko's off exploring the Gamma Quadrant in the Defiant. Dax picks up some stranger reading, which they investigate and spot a planet appearing out of nowhere. O'Brien says the planet wasn't cloaked, and the ship is promptly scanned from the planet, before they're contacted. The woman, Seltin, explains it was in another dimension and invites them down for dinner. They discuss the planet's dimensional shifts, and it's explained that the whole planet and its inhabitants become non-corporial in the other dimension.

Meanwhile, Jeff CombsTiron is unhappy with the holoprogram he bought from Quark, and says he wants a custom program with Kira in it. Quark agrees.

One of the Meridians, Deral, tells Dax that the planet's real-universe excursions are getting shorter and shorter, and eventually it will disappear for good. The pair beam up with Sisko in order to run some tests from the Defiant.

Quark announces that Kira's his one millionth customer or something, in order to get her into the holosuite. This B plot, incidentally, is so important it's not even mentioned on the startrek.com episode page.

The Defiant launches a probe. Also Dax and Deral beam down to the planet and climb a tree. And eat water grapes. And have off-camera sex, which in Trek is the best you can hope for. Later on, they analyse readings and talk technobabble. Yeah, that makes me hot too. Ohhhh yeah!

Odo and Kira catch Quark trying to take a holopicture of the major. He claims he's trying to make a holoprogram of Ops. No one is convinced, and Kira tells Quark where she'll stick his holoimager if he points it at her again.

Dax breaks it to Deral that it'll take a long time to stabilise the sun and prevent Meridian's dimensional shifts - unfortunately this means they won't see each other until the next shift in 60 years. Deral immediately decides he's going to leave the planet so he can be with her. After a meeting, he tells Dax the others weren't happy about him leaving.

Quark tells Tiron that he's putting the final touches to the holoprogram. Odo lets Kira know that someone's been stealing data about Kira from the station's computer, and she says she has A Plan.

Deral admits to Dax that he's torn between his duty to his people and his love for Dax. She offers to stay, but Deral says that she wouldn't survive the dimensional shift - she thinks they can use the transporter to get around that. She hands a leave-of-absence form to Sisko, who's a bit bugged by the whole thing, but they say tearful goodbyes.

Quark presents Tiron with the completed holoprogram. Where he's presented with Kira's body with Quark's head. Tiron is terribly angry, and storms out. Gosh, how WACKY.

Dax had her molecules adjusted, and beams down to the planet. The planet starts to disappear, but fails, and starts to tear itself apart. Dax realises she's not disappearing with everyone else - her presence is destabilising the dimensional shift. O'Brien beams her up, and the planet vanishes. Dax is very depressed. Teh end.